TREASURES FROM THE WRITINGS
OF JACOB BOEHME

An Introduction to
Jacob Boehme

THE
TEUTONIC THEOSOPHER

Jacob Boehme, chosen
servant of God, was born in Alt Seidenburg, Germany, in 1575.

John Wesley, in his day,
required all of his preachers to study the writings of Jacob Boehme; and the learned
theologian, Willam Law, said of him: Jacob Boehme was not a messenger of anything
new in religion, but the mystery of all that was old and true in religion and nature, was
opened up to him,  the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God.

Born of poor, but pious,
Lutheran parents, from childhood, Jacob Boehme was concerned about the salvation of
his soul. Although daily occupied, first as a shepherd, and afteward as a shoemaker,
he was always an earnest student of the Holy Scriptures; but he could not understand
the ways of God, and he became perplexed, even to melancholy, 
pressed out of measure. He said: I knew the Bible from beginning to end, but
could find no consolation in Holy Writ; and my spirit, as if moving in a great storm,
arose in God, carrying with it my whole heart, mind and will and wrestled with the love
and mercy of God, that his blessing might descend upon me, that my mind might be illumined
with his Holy Spirit, that I might understand his will and get rid of my sorrow . . .

I had always thought much
of how I might inherit the kingdom of heaven; but finding in myself a powerful
opposition, in the desires that belong to the flesh and blood, I began a battle
against my corrupted nature; and with the aid of God, I made up my mind to overcome the
inherited evil will, . . . break it, and enter wholly into the love of God in Christ Jesus
. . . I sought the heart of Jesus Christ, the center of all truth; and I resolved to
regard myself as dead in my inherited form, until the Spirit of God would take form in me,
so that in and through him, I might conduct my life.

I stood in this
resolution, fighting a battle with myself, until the light of the Spirit, a light entirely
foreign to my unruly nature, began to break through the clouds. Then, after
some farther hard fights with the powers of darkness, my spirit broke through the doors of
hell, and penetrated even unto the innermost essence of its newly born divinity where it
was received with great love, as a bridegroom welcomes his beloved bride.

No word can express the
great joy and triumph I experienced, as of a life out of death, as of a resurrection from
the dead! . . . While in this state, as I was walking through a field of flowers, in
fifteen minutes, I saw through the mystery of creation, the original of this world and of
all creatures. . . . Then for seven days I was in a continual state of ecstasy, surrounded
by the light of the Spirit, which immersed me in contemplation and happiness. I learned
what God is, and what is his will. . . . I knew not how this happened to me, but my heart
admired and praised the Lord for it!

At the age of twenty-five,
Boehme was given another great illumination, in which the Lord let him see farther into
the heart of things, . . . the true nature of God and man, and the relationship
existing between them. Ten years later the divine order of nature was
opened up to him, and he was inspired to write what the Lord had revealed to him.

From 1612 to 1624, he wrote
thirty books, My books are written Boehme said only for those who desire
to be sanctified and united to God, from whom they came . . . Not through my
understanding, but in my resignation in Christ . . from him have I received knowledge of
his mysteries. God dwells in that which will resign itself up, with all its reason and
skill, unto him . . . I have prayed strongly that I might not write except for the
glory of God and the instruction and benefit of my brethren.

Jacob Boehmes
persecutions and suffering began with the publication of his first book, Aurora,
at the age of thirty-five. Then not withstanding five years of enforced
silence, banishment from his home town, and an ecclesiastical trial for heresy, his
interior wisdom began to be recognized by the nobility of Germany.
In 1624, when his mission on earth was finished, at the age of forty-nine,
Boehme died in Silesia, happy as he said, in the midst of the heavenly
music of the Paradise of God.

A Treasure of Passages from Boehme

This is an
anonymous collection of excerpts, done without references, from various works of Jacob
Boehme. The contributor to PTW was told that it was circulating in Canada and the
United States in the 1970's and possibly before that. Modern spelling and the
use of lower case treatment, shows the collection to be a more recent effort, but its
content is priceless to those who find it.

MAN
IN THE IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY

O great and holy God, I
pray thee, set open my inwardness to me; that I may rightly know what I am; and open in me
what was shut up in Adam. . . .

God stirred himself to
produce creation . . . He was desirous of having children of his own kind . . . Creation
was an act of the free will of God; God unfolded his eternal nature, and through his
active love, or desire, he caused that which heretofore had been in him merely as spirit
(as an image contained in a piece of wood before the artist has cut it out), to become
substantial, corporeal.

God longed after the
visible substance of his similitude and image, and so created man . . . Man was created
the child of Omnipotency; a pure virgin, after the form of the Eternal . . . with a pure
mind and holy faculties, in which dwelt no lust . . . His will was in God. He was to
be a perfect symbol of God; to attain the great fountain of meekness and love
welling up from the heart of God. He was a virgin without a feminine form, after the form
of the Eternal; full of chastity, modesty and purity, in the image of God . . .

He had both fire
and light in him, and therefore, love . . . No knowledge of any evil was in him;
no lust, no covetousness, no pride, no envy, no anger, nothing but love . . . the
Celestial image clothed him with divine power. He could have removed mountains with
a word; he could rule over the sun, moon and stars; all was in his power, the fire, the
air, the water and the earth. Every living creature feared him. His life fluid
was heavenly. His will was in God, and God was in him. He was in paradise,
clothed with the heavenly glory . . . the light of the majesty of God . . . He lived on
paradisiacal fruit and the Word of God . . . He knew no woe, no sickness, no death; he
lived in joy and delight, without toil or care.

Man was created free and
responsible, with a will to move in whatever direction he chose; to be nothing in himself,
to be one with God; and in freedom to pass into that state of the Son, to give all and to
receive all from the Father, for the glory and power of God; or  to enter and remain
in the world of darkness. For he was the son of God, and could have gone on into the
manifestation of God, and Gods deeds of wonder!

Understand, O man, what
thou wast before the fall; created to live eternally in love! . . . Know how sin arose,
that thou mayst lay hold of the remedy for it!

God created his image and
likeness in a single man. Adam was a man and also a woman; . . . for God did not, in
the beginning make man and woman, he did not create them at the same time, because the
life in which the two properties of masculine and feminine are united in one, constitutes
man in the image of God, . . . after the manner of the Fathers and the Sons
property, which together are one God, not divided; for perfect love is not found in one
property, but in the two, one entering into the other.

The fire, and light
(which is the meekness and love of God) was in Adam. The fire of God is the root of
all things, and the origin of life, the cause of all strength and power. Lucifer
took offense at the light, the humility of God, and entered into the fierce might of the
fire, for he would domineer . . . He turned away from the will of the Eternal, for the
fierce power of the fire delighted him more that the meekness in the still habitation of
God, and he became the prince of this world . . . He ever moveth in a fire which consumeth
all else to himself . . . The devils fire desires a body to devour and turn to
nothing, to darkness.

Gods fire is
coupled with love; his fire causes light; and light, love; light desireth substance, a
body to fill, and does not consume; it takes away nothing, but it quickens; . . . love
giveth itself freely to all . . . The natural comprehendeth not light . . . Light changeth
the false imagination into the truth . . . Fire alone makes a hard set self-hood . . . God
moveth in the light of meekness, and hath a substance, water, the water of
life, which holds fire captive . . . The water of life alone can make
immortal bodies.

Adam could have generated
a heavenly kingdom out of himself . . . Eve was within Adam as a pure, chaste, virginal
power. He could then generate in a virginal state, and procreate by means of his
will, and out of his own substance, without pain or laceration: . . . for one being could
have been born of another, in the same way as Adam in his virginal state, was projected
into being, in the image of God; because that which is of the Eternal, can also procreate,
multiply itself, according to the law of Eternity. In time there was to have been
born the King of all men, who was to take possession of Gods kingdom, as Ruler of
all created beings, in place of cast-out Lucifer, now prince of this world.

Adam saw within himself
two forms of being, belonging to the paradisiacal world; and then he saw one also without,
belonging to this world; and his soul imagined after the outward . . . Then came the
command to him, Eat not of the mixed fruit of good and evil, lest ye die! But
Adam continued to imagine after the earthly dominion: . . . he imagined after the beasts
and introduced himself into bestial lust, to eat and to generate as beasts do . . . He
desired to live in himself and be lord . . . He thought he would eat both the paradisiacal
and the forbidden fruit and so live forever; . . . but he had brought the earthly quality
into the pure, celestial substance, and his light was being extinguished; the divine image
was disappearing, the earthly appearing.

He could no longer live
in obedience to the will of the Father; . . . his lust for the earthly fruit overcame him,
and he sank into a deep sleep; and God saw that is was not possible for him to live in
obedience, and let him sleep; sleep signifieth death.

So Adam cast himself out
from the majesty of God, with his own will; he could not continue to walk in his
innocency, that he might have his confirmation in the divine way of production; for he had
turned from the speaking of the word into self-will, lust and speaking
good and evil; and Gods good will perished in him.

God had forbidden Adam
his false desire, lust after earthly fruit and power and virtue; and Adam had no necessity
for these things; he had the paradisiacal fruit, the Word of God, and no want or death . .
. His eyes, which might have continued to see always and eternally, the glory of God,
closed in sleep . . . God permitted Adam to sleep; otherwise, in the power of fire, in his
selfishness, he would have become a devil."

MAN
IN THE IMAGE OF THE EARTHY

We Have Borne the Image of the Earthy

Adam was given that which
he would have, . . . the terrestrial woman, in place of the celestial virgin; for
Adams treachery toward his heavenly consort, disqualified him for her, and left him
only fitted for an Eve! During his sleep, the woman was made out of
Adam, and the image of God was destroyed . . . The man and the woman were made into
creatures of this outer world, fashioned into mortality.

Adam and Eve had still a
paradisiacal consciousness, but mixed with terrestrial desire. They were
naked although not ashamed until they had eaten of the earthly
fruit, . . . Adam went out from the will of God into the world, and was captivated by it,
and ate of earthly fruit. Then the spirit of this world took his soul captive, and
his faculties became earthly, his substance bestial.

After eating of the tree
of self-knowledge, of good and evil, . . . by willing otherwise than God willed, . . . man
became unholy; . . . .he died to the holy, heavenly image, and lived in the awakened
bestial image of the serpent . . . The animal being had swallowed up the celestial state,
and Adam and Eve then had common flesh, hard bones, bestial members, and needed bestial
clothing.

Man was now separated
from God . . . Lusting after the earthly, the holy anointing oil, given of Christ, was
dried up; he became shut up in a gross, bestial image, for his flesh now belonged to the
earth and to death; the dominion of this world now dwelt in him.

The desire of a beast is
only to nourish itself and to multiply itself. It hath no understanding
of any higher thing. It hath its own spirit, whereby it liveth and groweth and consumeth
itself . . . If God had intended that man should live as the beasts, he would have created
him in the similitude of, and with the beasts . . . If he had created him for this
earthly, miserable, naked, toilsome, corruptible, animal life, he would have made men and
women from the start; and both sexes would have come forth in the spoken word,
into the division of both properites, as it was in other earthly creatures.

Lust originated in Adam,
but thereupon his perverted desire began to be excited in the woman . . . Eve was then
moved by her lust, which the devil awakened in her, and desiring to be skillful, she
became foolish . . . The serpent said to her, Your eyes shall be opened, and you
shall be as gods. It is true that her earthly eyes were opened, but her
spiritual eyes became closed; with earthly eyes, man cannot see the kingdom of God.

When Adam took notice of
his bestial form, he was ashamed, and God said; Adam, where art thou?
His body did hide itself, so ashamed was his poor soul and he said, I was afraid; I
was naked, and hid myself. The precious heavenly virgin, with which he was
clothed, was lost; his crystalline image was destroyed.

After the fall, man was
subject to the limitations of time, and was degraded to the animal state of being, so that
heaven, paradise and divinity became a mystery to him . . . God cursed the earth for
mans sake, and no paradisiacal fruit grew any more; all was gone, save only the
mercy and the grace of God! . . . After the fall, men lived in weakness, as today.
They begat children in two kingdoms of wrath and love, evil and good, Cain and Abel,
Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob.

When man fell, the
paradise of all heavenly knowledge withdrew, and Wisdom was in grief, until God gave the
promise of the seed of the woman."

MAN
IN THE RESTORED IMAGE

We Shall also Bear the Image of the Heavenly

All the teachings of
Christ have no other object than to show us how we may re-ascend to our virginal unity
with him . . . There is ever a strife over mans image; the devil and hell say,
It is mine, by right of nature; it is generated out of my root. The
spirit of this world says, It is mine, I give it life, nourishment, and bring it up,
and give to it my power and wonders. The kingdom of God says, I have set
my heart upon it; I have regenerated it; I sought and found it; it is mine. It is
now in my kingdom, and it must reveal my wonders! And the poor soul of man is
in continual warfare.

O man, when the devil
seeks to hinder thee, set thyself against him; oppose him strongly! Thou hast, in
Christ, far greater power than he! Take all thy sins and throw them at the devil,
and say, Thou art the cause of them all! I take the mercy of God, the death of
Christ, to myself! Therein will I roll myself . . . For the last Adam was the
Offering and the Liberator to set thee free!

Cease to please thyself,
and keep from thy natural will, then wilt thou fall into the will of God; and then the
devil cannot meddle with thee! Mans own will brought him to his own center,
separated from God . . . Man began in the Word of God, but broke off from it; he must come
back and be regenerated, to become as he was made originally, inbreathed by God.

The heavenly image, lost
in Adam, the lightlife of Christ, has been the birth-right of man ever since the
treader down of the serpent of self-will was promised . . . Christ restores
this image through regeneration, by which man re-enters into the one Tree, Christ
. . . This divine fire of the Spirit of Christ continually crushes the head of the
serpent, i.e. the desire of the flesh, beneath his feet . . . for the devil ever holdeth
before the soul the unclean forbidden tree; for he would have inward dominion in man . . .
When man yieldeth himself wholly to God, his will falls again into the unsearchable will
of God.

Such a man as Adam was
before his Eve, shall arise again, and enter into, and eternally possess paradise . . .
Man will enter again into the speaking Word and speak with God!

The image of God is the
fair virgin, which substantiated by the regenerate life, restores to man the wife of his
youth (Mal.2:14), the divine womanhood of Adams two-fold
perfection. This image, shut up in Adam, could only be stirred by the power of God .
. . That it might again appear, God manifested himself in Christ . . . The eternal
virginity, lost by Adam, came unto Mary by the Word of life. The fire of divine love
in her being, in the virginal essence, (corrupted in Adam, and now restored), brought to
birth that Holy Thing, the Son of God . . . And Christ in man makes man alive;
restores again that which the devil severed in the first Adam (into the male and female),
making them one again  a virginal manhood  a son of God.

Christ, the divine
spiritual Sun of Righteousness, enters again into the original matrix, out of which the
life of man has taken its origin,  the eternal Word . . . The hungry soul absorbs
the Word, and then returns to the original spiritual state, and becomes a temple of divine
love, wherein the Father receives his beloved Son; and in which the Holy Spirit dwells . .
. The creature is not God; it remaineth eternally under God; but God blazeth through it
with his love-fire, his light and shining; and that shining, man retaineth as long as his
will remaineth in Gods light . . . Where the will is, there is the heart also.

As Christ was born in
a stable, and cradled in a manger, so is Christ in man ever born amidst the animals in
man. The new-born Savior is ever laid in a cradle between the ox of self-will
and the ass of ignorance, in the stable of the animal condition in man; and from thence
the king of pride (as Herod), finds his kingdom endangered, and seeks to kill the child,
who is to become the ruler of the New Jerusalem in man.

O man, take heed of
pride; the devil fleeth into it! . . .Take heed of covetousness! The covetous man is
the greatest fool upon earth; he gathers that which he must leave to others, and gains
only an evil conscience and treasures in hell! But he that trusteth God hath
continually enough; he gets a new body, which neither hunger, cold, nor heat, can affect;
he hath a conscience at rest, and will eternally rejoice in his treasure he has laid up in
heaven! . . . Take heed of anger; that is the devils sword, with which he commits
all murders. If the soul is given to lust, pleasure and dominion of this world, the
devil doth not sift it so strongly; he carrieth it in his triumphant chariot! . . . Take
heed of the perfect pattern God has given, of what man should and must be,  Jesus! .
. . And pray for the illumination of the Holy Spirit; resolve not to let him go, until he
bless thee!

The Holy Spirit, the
moving power of God, the former of his Word, which expresseth the will of God, the heart
of God, openeth the heart of man to the virtues of Gods Word . . . Then the animal
within must die! One cannot remain an animal and become divine . . . When the soul
is freed from the evil beast then it is open to Christ, and his divine love-fire
. . . Gods Son is love and light and life; for man to pass from fire to light, there
is only one way, through death.

Man must cease to act by
his false imagination; he must put it to death  into the hiddenness; nail
it to the cross of Christ, and there, through lack of indulgence, nourishment, it dies;
and then comes the new-birth,  light, liberty and love! . . . By the
power of the light and love of Christ, man overcomes the fire of self-will, and
re-establishes his soul in the divine image of God . . . Then must he keep his imagination
fixed in the love of God; for all outside is darkness.

The two kingdoms of fire
and light,  wrath and love, part at the cross. On the cross the Son of God
redeemed the soul unto the heavenly image, the Word, the eternal body of Christ, which is
heavenly . . . In Christ the divine kingdom standeth open, and every one that will, may
enter in; whosoever puts his will away from himself, and puts it into Christ, . . . when
that soul is born of the Word and the Spirit of Christ, then the inward body of the soul
becometh a new creation in Christ; . . . God and this inward man become one . . . Mortification
of self-will and the recipiency of grace, is all a human can do to work out his own
salvation.

The going on to
perfection, includes both an increase of knowledge, and the greatest holiness of
life . . . Sin must be brought into the judgment of God, and the holy love fire of God
must consume it. When the will is converted, the soul enters into such sorrow for
earthly iniquity that it will have nothing of iniquity any more.

The regenerated, new-born
soul in Christ has not only a new spirit, but is a new creation, with an everlasting
(spiritual) body . . . He is not of this world; he is a stranger to this world, with no
understanding of it . . . He is in the paradise of God, and desires nothing else but that
which Christ within his soul desires . . . This soul must die to letters, reason,
scholarship and knowledge, to enter into the only one true life  Jesus! . . . For
hard thoughts, high fancies and conceits are not necessary, but the love and mercy of God
 to be one with him . . . This soul must keep plunged in the humility, love and
patience of God; . . . go every hour out of death, and into life!

He must learn how to go
out of discussion and vanity; . . . break the power of the selfish will, which no man can
do by his own human power . . . He must give up his self-will as dead, that he may be
submerged in the love of God . . . To every self-centered desire this soul must die; for
all that doth vex and plague is the self-hood . . . In all the world there is no such
cruel beast as that which is in the heart of every man and woman,  self-love!

What hinders men from
seeing and hearing God, is their own hearing, seeing and willing; by their own wills they
separate themselves from the will of God. They see and hear within their own
desires, which obstructs them from seeing and hearing God. Terrestrial and material
things overshadow them, and they cannot see beyond their own human nature. If they
would be still, desist from thinking and feeling with their own self-hood, subdue the
self-will, enter into a state of resignation, into a divine union with Christ, who sees
God, and hears God, and speaks with him, who knows the word and will of God; then would
the eternal hearing seeing and speaking become revealed to them.

Self-will cannot
comprehend anything of God. It is not in God, but external to him. If we live
in Christ, the Spirit of Christ will see through us, and in us. We will see and know
what Christ desires.

Christ dwelling in the
soul, causes his light to become a holy substance, a spiritual body, a true temple, in
which the Holy Spirit dwells . . . Self-hood hath not true substance, in which light can
be steadfast. It desireth not Gods meekness.

In meekness and lowliness
consisteth the kingdom of heaven . . . Gods substance is humility. He who came
to rescue us from the evil power, described himself as meek and lowly; and he
could announce, when quit of coarse flesh and blood disguise, that to him was given
all power in heaven and in earth. . . The mysteries of God are revealed to the
meek. Let the soul lose no time in trying to clothe itself with humility . . . Humility is
the throne of love; unless this throne is firmly established, love is quickly deposed by
every spasm of self-will . . . It is more blessed to continue under the cross of
Christ, in patience and meekness, than to bring down 'fire from heaven'! . . . There
is no contention in Christ, but love and humility.

The flowers of the earth
do not grudge at one another, though one be more beautiful and fuller of virtue than
another, but they stand humbly, kindly, one by another, and enjoy one anothers
virtue; so we all please God, if we give up ourselves into his will; if we all stand
humbly in his field.

Our trance of selfishness
must end, for we are all being organized, by the one only life, in the one body.
In the body of Christ, self-seeking is a monstrosity! . . . The whole body must be
'fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint (or joining) supplieth, . .
. unto the edifying of itself in love.' The second manifestation of Christ to his
people will be in their bodies. . . Our Lord hath need of each one in his great, mystical
body; and they must all be one in him, the Anointed.

There is a life, this
world comprehendeth it not; . . . it hath no fire to consume, but a mighty fire in light
and love and joy; a fire of brightness and majesty, no pain therein . . . It hath a body
without defect, want, misery, anger, death or devil . . . The Holy Spirit is its air and
spirit; it is filled with love and joy . . . This life has been from eternity . . .
uprising and blossoming! . . . It is not of this earth, but substantial,  the
eternal life! . . . and all who have received this life, at the end of the age, will be
presented pure and without blemish, . . . one body in Christ!

In the time of the end,
the time of the Lily, these writings will be sought as serviceable . . . to all such who
are shooting forth into the fair Lily in the kingdom of God, who are in the process of
birth, are these lines written; that each one may be strengthened, and bud in the life of
God, and grow, and bear fruit in the Tree of paradise; . . . that each branch and twig in
this fair Tree may contribute, help and shelter all the other branches and twigs, that
this Tree may become a great Tree! . . . Then shall we all rejoice, one with another, with
joy unspeakable and full of glory!

AMEN !

Note:The excerpts of Boehme
presented on this site are taken from the 18th century translations done by William Law.